Another strong high school rifle season in the books
Another WPIAL rifle season has come and gone and included some downright stellar peformances.
In the team portion of the tournament, Woodland Hills proved why it went unbeaten during the regular season, rolling to the title with an 800-74X. The Wolverines were so deep, their entire lineup last Tuesday at the Dormont-Mt. Lebanon Sportsmen’s Club fired 100s, finishing with a 900-90X, meaning their average – average! – score was 100-9X.
As Avella head coach Jim Mounts told me afterward, that’s some outstanding marksmanship.
Not to be outdone, the individual tournament had plenty of good shooting.
Trinity’s Kayla Huffman shot a 200-19X with seven center shots to become the Hillers’ eighth individual champion. That’s the most of any school since the WPIAL began holding individual championships in 1998.
Huffman’s score was two center shots better than her performance in the tournament last year, when she finished a close second to Hempfield’s Abbie Bache.
That consistency was shown by Huffman throughout the season. She was one of just four WPIAL shooters to not drop a point during the regular season, taking home the Dave Cramer Perfect Season Award. The others were Avella’s Dena Simonelli, McGuffey’s Courtney Stiles and Bethel Park’s Ellen Walker.
It was nice of the WPIAL rifle coaches to name the award for a perfect season after Cramer. A longtime rifle coach at Duquesne, Cramer, who died in 2012, was very involved in shooting at the high school level as well.
How involved? Huffman purchased her first target rifle from Cramer.
To show just how competitive the WPIAL tournament is – of the six 2013 medalists who returned in 2014, Huffman was the only one who finished in the top 14 to advance to the state tournament. A tenth of an inch can be the difference between winning a medal and going home with nothing.
Now, the top four teams in the WPIAL tournament, including McGuffey, and the top 14 individual placewinners, including Huffman, Mikwayla DeMarino and Collin Page from Trinity, Marta Zimmerman from Washington and Becca Spencer and Simonelli from Avella will compete against shooters from across the state to see who is the top high school shooter in Pennsylvania.
That match will be shot later this week at the Frazier-Simplex Rifle Club. Here’s guessing we’ll have more than a few medalists in that tournament as well.
• The Frazier-Simplex rifle team fired an impressive 1,488 Wednesday to hold off Irwin Post 228, which shot a 1,470, in a Greater Pittsburgh and Suburban Rifle League match.
Leading the way for Frazier-Simplex was 2013 NRA Indoor champion John Husk, who fired his first 300 of the season. Husk was nearly matched by teammate Zac Szabo, who shot a 299.
Frazier’s Sylvia Dreistadt shot her high score for the season, a 298, while Tom Moreley had a 296 and Ryan Stein a 295 to round out the scoring for unbeaten Frazier-Simplex.
Samantha Dickson and Kaitlin Korinek fired their high scores of the season for Irwin, 297 and 296, respectively.
Dormont-Mt. Lebanon also had a strong showing last week, beating the Allegheny County Rifle Club in a match at Millvale, 1,479-1,446.
Dean Trew, who was out of the lineup for several weeks after suffering a heart attack, returned to match Amy Smith for the team’s high score at 299.
Tom Benedict shot a 295, while Nicholle Benedict and Rick Janoski both fired 293s for Dormont-Mt. Lebanon, which improved to 9-2.
Dan Eichenlaub led Allegheny with a 292.
A special thanks goes out to Trew, who has continued to keep me updated on what’s going on in the league despite his health issues.
Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.